St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1887-09-08
WORD FROM THE WEST.
BrGttleborO Phoeni1

BTGttte6OT0 Ph0entI.
l.. F. Adams, manager of the YER
mont Live Stock company, returned
Wednesday evening from visit of
seven weeks in the west, his journey
extending to the cOmpany's range in
Dakota and Montana. On the range
he found everything prospecting.
Mr.. Adams spent a considerable pOr-
ton of his time in travelling through
the leading wheat and corn sections of
the west to ascertain the condition of
those crops. Eastern people, he says,
can have no adequate conception of
the actual devastation and suffering
caused by the summers terrible and
prOtracted drouth in Illinois, especial
ly in the northern part, southern and
western Wisconsin, southern Minnesota
and small portion of Iowa. For
miles, he says, through the stricken
territory, the grass literally burned up
in the pasture and fields and they are
absolutely barren of vegetation. Cat
the intense heat, and are sold by the
farmers for mere pittance because
they have no food to give them. AL
ready the immense bran product of the
great Minneapolis mills is engaged for
months ahead to supply the farmers
who hope by this means to keep their
Il;
has thrown up stalks over the greater
portion of the devastated district, but
by far the greater part of it will form
no ears. The rains of last week broke
the drOutlI, but the best that can now
happen for the rest of the year is the
growth of small quantity of fall feed.
In Minnesota as a whole, in Dakota,
70 - --~.~-.- zToI-''si-~ tl-e-ee--.
crop will be an average, but in Kansas,
where a crop of 100000, 900 bushels
was expected, not over half of this
amount will be realized.
One thing which Mr.. Adams says is
of interest to that class of our country
population who are afflicted with an
unreasOning western fever. The time
has gone by, if it ever existed, when
the great west is the poor mans para
dise-the place where riches, prOsperi
ty and easy life assuredly await him.
Repeated opportunities for observation
have convinced Mr.. Adams that the
average farmer, young or old, who
leaves his home in the east and
goes west, expecting to "better his
condition." makes the greatest mistake
of his life. If man has capital to
start with the case is different. If he
is shrewd and diligent he is likely to
find success east or west but if he means
to make farming his lifewOrk and has
only his own labor to depend upon,
with little money for immediate ne
cessities, his chances of success are as
great on the old hill farms of New
England as in the west, say nothing
of the superior, even if scanty, social
and educational advantages and home
influences which the east affords him.
The classes who are to be pittied are
the dupes who have gone west Oh the
strength of representations made by
railroad companies and land specula-
tors who advertise "homes for the mill
ion," and "a farm free for every body."
Thousands of such would return to
their old homes in the east could they
get the mOney to do it with. The day
is surely coming, Mr.. Adams believes,
when the old farms among the New
England hills aud valleys will be
sought out and rehabilitated and care
fully titled, aud their owners will find
their life work and their real wealth
in making them as productive as pos
sible, in seeing them well stocked and
in establishing on them snug, attrac-
tive homes for themselves and their
families.